Gazette 081914

Tuesday August 19th 2014

As US bombs Islamic State group in Iraq, Syria's embattled president strikes them at home

BEIRUT –  As the U.S. military strikes the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have significantly stepped up their own campaign against militant strongholds in Syria, carrying out dozens of airstrikes against the group's headquarters in the past two days.
While the government in Damascus has long turned a blind eye to the Islamic State's expansion in Syria — in some cases even facilitating its offensive against mainstream rebels — the group's rapid march on towns and villages in northern and eastern Syria is now threatening to overturn recent gains by government forces.

While Islamic State militants have so far concentrated their attacks against the Western-backed fighters seeking to topple Assad, they have in the past month carried out a major onslaught against Syrian army facilities in northeastern Syria, capturing and slaughtering hundreds of Syrian soldiers and pro-government militiamen in the process.
On Monday, Islamic State fighters were closing in on the last government-held army base in the northeastern Raqqa province, the Tabqa air base, prompting at least 16 Syrian government airstrikes in the area in an attempt to halt their advance.

Anti-Aircraft Weapons In Syria Could Threaten Commercial Aviation, New Report Warns

WASHINGTON (AP) — Armed groups in Syria have an estimated several hundred portable anti-aircraft missiles that could easily be diverted to extremists and used to destroy low-flying commercial planes, according to a new report by a respected international research group. It cites the risk that the missiles could be smuggled out of Syria by terrorists.
The report was released just hours after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice Monday to U.S. airlines banning all flights in Syrian airspace. The agency said armed extremists in Syria are "known to be equipped with a variety of anti-aircraft weapons which have the capability to threaten civilian aircraft." The agency had previously warned against flights over Syria, but had not prohibited them.
Small Arms Survey, a Switzerland-based research organization that analyzes the global flow of weapons, published its findings Tuesday following last month's lethal missile attack on a passenger jet flying over Ukraine. The report focuses on launchers and missiles known as "man-portable air defense systems," or MANPADS, which are dangerous to planes flying at lower altitudes or ones taking off or landing.
Related: US bans flights over Syria as report warns of threat to airliners

25 Turkish police officers arrested amid Erdoğan wiretapping scandal

Swoop in cities including Istanbul and Izmir province is part of investigation linked to government corruption claims
Twenty-five police officers have been arrested by Turkish authorities in the latest nationwide swoop to detain suspects alleged to have illegally wiretapped key government figures, including the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reports said.
Police carried out raids in 12 cities across Turkey, including Istanbul, as well as the western province of Izmir, as part of the investigation into allegations of espionage and illegal wiretapping, the private Doğan news agency reported.
The swoop on Tuesday was the third such roundup since July in a probe which has resulted in dozens of arrests and raised tensions as Erdoğan prepares for his inauguration as president on 28 August.
The probe is linked to last year's corruption allegations against Erdoğan and his inner circle – vehemently denied by the premier – that were based on wiretapped telephone conversations.
In a statement, the Izmir governor's office said the arrests centred on wiretapping allegations involving the Izmir police department between 2010 and 2013.
The suspects were facing a series of charges, from forming a crime ring to forging official documents and violation of privacy, Doğan said.
Among the detainees was the former Izmir police intelligence deputy head, Hasan Ali Okan.
He was removed from his position after what appeared to be a broader government purge of Turkey's police in the aftermath of the corruption claims in December.
Erdoğan's government has embarked on a massive purge targeting the police and judiciary, believed to be filled with loyalists of the US-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gülen, whom it blames for the allegations.

Gaza ceasefire 'extended by a day' after Cairo talks

The Gaza ceasefire has been extended for a further 24 hour after talks in Cairo, Egypt says.

The truce was extended until midnight on Tuesday (21:00 GMT) to allow talks on a more long-term arrangement.
However, Palestinian officials say discussions are continuing but that there has been "no progress" on reaching an agreement with Israel.
Officials say that 2,016 Palestinians and 66 Israelis have died since Israel began its offensive on Gaza on 8 July.
In a statement minutes before the expiry of a previous truce at midnight on Monday, Egypt released a statement confirming both sides had accepted its request for an extension.
The previous ceasefire came into effect last Wednesday.
Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces would hit back hard if Hamas resumed rocket fire.
He said the military was "ready for all scenarios" and were prepared "for very resolute action if fire resumes".
Negotiating teams returned to Egypt's capital Cairo for indirect talks on Sunday.

Jerusalem warns West on Iran: Don’t partner with one devil to fight another 

Amid signs that Western leaders may try to work with Iran to halt the march of Sunni Islamic extremists like the Islamic State, Jerusalem’s message to the world is to be wary of strengthening one bad actor in order to combat another, government officials said Monday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a piece that appeared in The Sunday Telegraph, wrote: “The creation of an extremist caliphate in the heart of Iraq and extending into Syria is not a problem miles away from home. Nor is it a problem that should be defined by a war 10 years ago. It is our concern here and now. Because if we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain.”
Cameron added that, “We must work with countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the UAE, Egypt and Turkey against these extremist forces, and perhaps even with Iran, which could choose this moment to engage with the international community against this shared threat.”
On June 26, soon after the Islamic State, then known as ISIS, made extraordinary gains in Iraq, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on NBC’s Meet the Press that Washington’s approach should be to try simultaneously to weaken both Iran and the extremist Sunni organization.

Iraq crisis: UN launches new aid effort in north Iraq

The United Nations agency for refugees is launching a major aid operation to reach more than half a million people displaced by fighting in northern Iraq.

Supplies will be sent via airlift, road convoys and sea shipments through Turkey, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran.
A BBC correspondent at Mosul Dam says Kurdish and Iraqi forces have retaken it from Islamic State (IS) militants.
IS forces have captured large parts of northern Iraq in recent weeks.
The UN's World Food Programme says it has already served up more than a million meals to displaced people in the past two weeks alone.
Tents and other goods will be included in the aid packages to be delivered to refugees to try and tackle the escalating humanitarian crisis.
Over the weekend, the UN agency for children Unicef stepped up their aid efforts for minority Yazidi refugees in northern Iraq.
Unicef representative Marzio Babille told the BBC it was one of the largest humanitarian responses he had seen in 50 years.
In Dohuk, 80,000 refugees had arrived in only 10 days, fleeing from IS militants.
The aid push comes as Western powers step up efforts to stem the advance of IS by supporting Kurdish and Iraqi government forces in northern Iraq.

Iraq military clashes with militants in Tikrit

BAGHDAD –  Clashes broke out Tuesday between Iraqi security forces and militants on the outskirts of Tikrit, a local official and a resident said, a day after the Iraqi and Kurdish troops backed by U.S. airstrikes dislodged Islamic militants from a strategic dam in the country's north.
The clashes began on the southwestern outskirts of the militant-held city of Tikrit, located about 80 miles north of the capital, when a military convoy was travelling along the main highway that links Baghdad with the northern provinces, they said.

The Iraqi military shelled militant positions inside and outside the city, they said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Both spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing their safety.
Sunni extremists from Islamic State group have occupied Tikrit and the northern city of Mosul since early June, as well as large parts of the country's north and west. The militant onslaught has plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011.
The group since has imposed a self-styled caliphate in territory it controls in Iraq and neighboring Syria, imposing their own harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

18 militants killed Pakistan airstrikes

ISLAMABAD: At least 18 militants were killed on Tuesday in airstrikes by Pakistani fighter jets in the country's troubled northwestern tribal region.

The hideouts of militants in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal areas were targeted in the fresh air strikes.

Five hideouts were wiped out in Khyber while seven in North Waziristan. Eighteen terrorists were killed in aerial strikes at both places, a military spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson said terrorists' command and control systems were also eliminated.

Pakistan had launched operation in North Waziristan in June after militants attacked Karachi international airport. More than 600 militants have been killed so far in the operation.
Related: Hundreds of Taliban fighters battling Afghan forces near Kabul, officials say

Ukraine crisis: 15 bodies found after strike on refugee convoy

Military spokesman says search continues after convoy of buses and cars was hit by rocket fire near Luhansk on Monday

Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed on Monday when a convoy carrying refugees was hit by rocket fire near the eastern city of Luhansk, a Ukrainian military spokesman said.
Government forces and pro-Russian rebels accused each other of the attack on the vehicles, which were evacuating civilians from the towns of Khryaschuvate and Novosvitlivka.
"The rebels were expecting the convoy and destroyed it entirely. We haven't been able to count the number of victims ... dozens (were killed)," spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a briefing to journalists.
Another military spokesman, Anatoly Proshin, said that evacuees were being transported by military vehicles flying white flags, which were hit by mortars and Grad rockets.
"As a result, there were a huge number of casualties. People were burned alive in the vehicles that were taking them out," Proshin told the Ukrainian Pravda newspaper.
But Andrei Purgin, deputy prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, said that the rebels did not have the ability to send Grad rockets to the area where the convoy was hit, and said that government forces have been bombarding that road with Grad rockets and airstrikes.
"It seems they've now killed more civilians, like they've been doing for months now," Purgin told Reuters.

Ebola death toll passes 1,200 as Liberia bears the heaviest burden

Liberia battled on Tuesday to halt the spread of the Ebola disease in its crowded, run-down oceanside capital Monrovia, recording the most new deaths as fatalities from the world’s worst outbreak of the deadly virus rose above 1,200.
On Tuesday, Liberian authorities announced that all suspected Ebola patients who had fled a Monrovia clinic that came under attack were now back in treatment at another clinic. The attack was seen as a potential major setback for Liberia’s efforts to contain the virus.
As the Geneva-based World Health Organization rushed to ramp up the global response to the outbreak first detected in March, including emergency food deliveries to quarantined zones, it announced that deaths from it had risen to 1,299 as of Aug. 16, out of 2,240 cases. Between Aug. 14-16, Liberia recorded the most new deaths, 53, followed by Sierra Leone with 17, and Guinea with 14.
The epidemic of the hemorrhagic disease also has a toehold in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.
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Ferguson unrest: New clashes as Obama urges calm

US police say they have arrested 31 people during another night of angry protests in the town of Ferguson in the state of Missouri.

Unrest flared hours after President Obama called for calm following the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on 9 August.
The US attorney general is due to visit Ferguson on Wednesday to meet federal officials investigating the killing.
The National Guard has been deployed to support police operations.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon announced the deployment on Monday, in addition to lifting a night-time curfew imposed on the weekend.
The killing of Mr Brown by a white policeman in a street has inflamed racial tensions in the largely black community of Ferguson.
Related: Hedy Epstein, 90-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor, Arrested During Michael Brown Protest

Missouri senator to Obama: Don't let Holder take over in Ferguson

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Monday urged President Obama to ensure that Attorney General Eric Holder does not take the investigation into Michael Brown’s death away from Missouri officials.

The shooting of the unarmed black teenager by a police officer has sparked days of civil unrest and raised concerns among civil rights advocates over whether local officials can be trusted to fairly investigate the teen’s death. An autopsy report released Sunday found Brown was shot six times.Blunt, who will join Holder and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) at an event in Ferguson on Wednesday, stressed that the president needs to let state investigators continue their work.
“I explained to the president that I've been pleased with my conversations with the attorney general and civil rights division regarding their helpful understanding that they aren't taking over this investigation, but are conducting a parallel review of the events that led to Michael Brown's death,” Blunt said in a statement.  
“I continue to believe that this is the best possible way to arrive at a transparent explanation that would be largely acceptable to all of those who have been impacted in the community by this tragedy,” he said.
Blunt has argued that state and local officials have a responsibility to delve into the matter on their own.
While the federal government has a role in assisting state officials, it should not take over their responsibilities, he said Monday.  

White House won't reveal documents related to ObamaCare website security

The White House has rejected a request to publicly disclose documents relating to the kinds of security software and computer systems behind the federal health care exchange website on the grounds that the information could "potentially" be used by hackers.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services denied a Freedom of Information Act request made late last year by the Associated Press amid concerns that Republicans raised about the security of the website, which had technical glitches that prevented millions of people from signing up for insurance under ObamaCare.

In denying access to the documents, including what's known as a site security plan, Medicare told the AP that disclosing them could violate health-privacy laws because it might give hackers enough information to break into the service.
"We concluded that releasing this information would potentially cause an unwarranted risk to consumers' private information," CMS spokesman Aaron Albright said in a statement.
The AP is asking the government to reconsider. Obama instructed federal agencies in 2009 to not keep information confidential "merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears." Yet the government, in its denial of the AP request, speculates that disclosing the records could possibly, but not assuredly or even probably, give hackers the keys they need to intrude.
Related: Community Health Systems data hack hits 4.5 million

Texas Governor Rick Perry vows to fight 'farce' indictment

The governor of the US state of Texas, Rick Perry, has vowed to fight an indictment against him for abuse of power, which he dismissed as a "farce".

It "amounts to nothing more than an abuse of power... I cannot and will not allow that to happen," Mr Perry said.
He faces two counts of abuse of power and coercion over a funding veto he imposed last year, seen as a bid to force a local prosecutor to resign.
The possible Republican presidential hopeful has denied any wrong-doing.
A grand jury indicted Governor Perry on Friday after months of investigation into his motivations for cutting funds amounting to $7.5m (£4.5m) to a state anti-corruption unit run by District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.
Special prosecutor Michael McCrum said there was evidence Governor Perry had threatened to withhold funding unless Ms Lehmberg, a Democrat, resigned over drink-driving charges.
'I intend to fight' The indictment said Governor Perry "intentionally or knowingly misused government property...with intent to harm another" namely, Ms Lehmberg and the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's Office.
But the governor defended his decision on Saturday, saying he had "exercised this authority to veto funding for an office whose leadership had lost the public's confidence by acting inappropriately and unethically".
"I wholeheartedly and unequivocally stand behind my veto, and I'll continue to defend this lawful action of my executive authority as governor.
"I intend to fight against those who would erode our state's constitution and laws, purely for political purposes, and I intend to win," Governor Perry told reporters.
Governor Perry, 63, is the longest-serving governor in the state's history and Texas's first indicted governor in nearly a century.
Related: Tom DeLay calls Texas Gov. Rick Perry's indictment a ‘conspiracy’

Obama Is Seen as Frustrating His Own Party

WASHINGTON — The meeting in the Oval Office in late June was called to give President Obama and the four top members of Congress a chance to discuss the unraveling situation in Iraq.

But Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, wanted to press another point.

With Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, sitting a few feet away, Mr. Reid complained that Senate Republicans were spitefully blocking the confirmation of dozens of Mr. Obama’s nominees to serve as ambassadors. He expected that the president would back him up and urge Mr. McConnell to relent.

Mr. Obama quickly dismissed the matter.

“You and Mitch work it out,” Mr. Obama said coolly, cutting off any discussion.

Mr. Reid seethed quietly for the rest of the meeting, according to four separate accounts provided by people who spoke with him about it. After his return to the Capitol that afternoon, Mr. Reid told other senators and his staff members that he was astonished by how disengaged the president seemed. After all, these were Mr. Obama’s own ambassadors who were being blocked by Mr. McConnell, and Secretary of State John Kerry had been arguing for months that getting them installed was an urgent necessity for the administration.

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